Sophie Hiscock, currently Director of Communications and Impact at Oxford’s The Story Museum, has been announced as the new Chief Executive of First Story and will take over from Antonia Byatt who has led the education and creative writing charity since 2019. Sophie will join First Story in February 2025.
Sophie has over 30 years’ experience working in the charitable and education sectors in a variety of communications and fundraising roles. For the past 12 years she has worked at The Story Museum in Oxford, most recently as the charity’s Director of Communications and Impact. Sophie was part of the leadership team that saw the Museum’s establishment as a new cultural venue in central Oxford that uses stories to teach and delight around 90,000 children, families and schools a year with its distinctive and immersive hands-on approach. Prior to working at The Story Museum, Sophie was Head of Creative Communications at the University of Oxford, having moved from a role as Head of Communications for the national homeless charity Emmaus. Sophie is passionate about helping children and young people discover the joy of stories and the power of finding their own voice and is delighted to have found a way of putting to good use all the hours of her own reading under the bedclothes as a child.
I’m incredibly excited to be joining the team at First Story in writing the next chapter in the charity’s mission to change lives through writing. With an ever-widening attainment gap in schools, there’s never been a more urgent need for the work that First Story does in nurturing the creativity of children and young people by supporting them to develop the skills and confidence to find their voice and write their own stories. I’m looking forward to hearing those stories firsthand and finding new ways to share them.
Sophie Hiscock
We’re delighted that Sophie can swap one story for another. She has been instrumental in shaping one narrative – one with so many affinities to First Story’s aspirations – and we’re eager to see how she will channel ours.
Ed Baden-Powell, Chair of First Story
First Story’s response to the Curriculum Review